Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Viking Sky position, adrift off Norway Coast and evacuating Passengers & Crew

CCWineLover

By CCWineLover,
in Viking Ocean

 Share

Recommended Posts

rjbean4

rjbean4

Posted
Posted (edited)

Really hope everything in the end turns out to be OK. For sure this is a scary situation. I have been following this via watching the live link from post #239 by cruzersky2.  Some people are saying things they shouldn't.

 

My mom & I are loyal HAL cruisers and were on board the Rotterdam Trans Atlantic in September, 2004 when we developed similar problems. We were so much further out from land at the time and had slowed down to not get too close to Hurricane Karl. Our course  had been changed but  because  Karl suddenly started to break apart and we still felt the effects. When we were back on the Rotterdam for the Holidays that December we found out there was a Million U.S. dollars worth of cosmetic damage to the ship and  some other things that contributed to it all which I can't say here. We were dead in the water for 3 hours. Took 2 hours to get back on line what the ship needed for propulsion but the ship needed 2 on line. Once we were able to get to this point we finally started moving. We were also in very, very heavy  and confused sea conditions. Our captain was great in keeping us updated and said that they had to be very careful about getting everything back on line so that we wouldn't go dead in the water again. This was also a part of very slowly increasing our speed as eventually we finally started to settle down and the stablizers could be deployed. They are not effective till the ship has enough speed. Ships will ride better when the bow is going into the waves instead of the side of a ship being hit from the side. With the Hurricane season we had here in Florida that year and there were so many people living in Florida on that cruise we knew how to clean along with other passengers and worked side by side with the crew to get the Rotterdam cleaned up. I was one of them. The conditions we had the next day was like nothing had happened.

 

 

Edited by rjbean4
  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
CCWineLover "Live from...." Rare

CCWineLover

Posted
  • Author
Posted
1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

And the "obvious" answer is that the worst place for a large cruise ship to be in a major storm is docked (or anchored) in a port!  The norm is to get the ship out to sea (where it is actually safer) and try to avoid the storm or the worst part of the storm.   In fact, most harbor masters will close ports in severe weather and request that ships depart....generally before the storm reaches the port.

 

What happened here is not necessarily related to the weather but to a major power failure (usually electrical).   None of us who routinely cruise (we have spent over 1000 days on cruise ships) or spend time at sea are "making light" of it!  In fact, I have texted a family member who is on that ship (she is doing fine) to express our concern and inquire about her well-being.  And as I posted earlier, she replied that they are doing OK and waiting to be rescued (they are still thinking by helicopter). 

 

What I find distressing are the comments (such as yours) that immediately want to point the finger of blame to something, or start asking about compensation.  Neither of those issues are appropriate at this point in time when over 1100 folks still remain on that vessel.  Trust me that my wife's cousin (who is on the ship and at her muster station) is only concerned about getting to land..   There will be plenty of time later to deal with the blame game.  For now, it is about saving lives.

 

Hank

 

1 hour ago, Hanoj said:

I get that. My concern has more to do with whether this incident was impacted by an error in judgment, which is conjecture at this point.

 

I totally agree with your points, Hank. 

And the most important thing is to get the people onshore safely - then and only then even think about other things. 

We were on the Viking SKY last year and certainly seeing the videos of the Explorer's Lounge that we remember with fond memories, being rolled back and forth, was quite unnerving.

Thoughts and prayers to everyone to get off safely!  

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Capt_BJ

Capt_BJ

Posted
Posted (edited)

wrt using lifeboats:

 

in this case it is not that they CAN NOT be used

 

rather ... their use would be very dangerous - launching in the seas being experienced - while there are OPTIONS .....

 

life boats are LAST RESORT and the situation has not reached this point as I see it

 

30 years USCG .... large cutter sailor (Captain) ..... I know of what I speak . . . 

Edited by Capt_BJ
  • Like 17
  • Thanks 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Shorex

Shorex

Posted
Posted
13 minutes ago, Pushka said:

In the case of the Concordia and now Sky, they were unable to use the lifeboats. So it does beg the question of what they can actually be used for in emergency situations like these two. 

 

Most of Concordia's lifeboats were used. The problems lay elsewhere. The captain's dereliction and lack of training and guidance of the crew. No wait, let's just go with the captain's dereliction.

 

In our recent muster drills, part of the message has been that lifeboats can be launched even if the ship is at an tilt.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
bob278

bob278

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

And the "obvious" answer is that the worst place for a large cruise ship to be in a major storm is docked (or anchored) in a port!  The norm is to get the ship out to sea (where it is actually safer) and try to avoid the storm or the worst part of the storm.   In fact, most harbor masters will close ports in severe weather and request that ships depart....generally before the storm reaches the port.

 

What happened here is not necessarily related to the weather but to a major power failure (usually electrical).   None of us who routinely cruise (we have spent over 1000 days on cruise ships) or spend time at sea are "making light" of it!  In fact, I have texted a family member who is on that ship (she is doing fine) to express our concern and inquire about her well-being.  And as I posted earlier, she replied that they are doing OK and waiting to be rescued (they are still thinking by helicopter). 

 

What I find distressing are the comments (such as yours) that immediately want to point the finger of blame to something, or start asking about compensation.  Neither of those issues are appropriate at this point in time when over 1100 folks still remain on that vessel.  Trust me that my wife's cousin (who is on the ship and at her muster station) is only concerned about getting to land..   There will be plenty of time later to deal with the blame game.  For now, it is about saving lives.

 

Hank

I always thought that, but there are "obviously" other things to consider.  We spent two nights on Brilliance of the Seas docked in Boston during hurricane Sandy instead of heading out to sea and trying to avoid the storm.  And a Princess ship came into port shortly after our scheduled departure time and stayed until we left. I don't know it if was the size and position of the storm or what, but we delayed sailing for over 36 hours.  For quite a few hours there was a tug positioned nose to our side pushing us against the dock. And I can say from personal experience that direct observation of a major storm surge is both magnificent and terrifying.

 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites
AncientWanderer

AncientWanderer

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Shorex said:

 

Most of Concordia's lifeboats were used. The problems lay elsewhere. The captain's dereliction and lack of training and guidance of the crew. No wait, let's just go with the captain's dereliction.

 

In our recent muster drills, part of the message has been that lifeboats can be launched even if the ship is at an tilt.

 

Well, as I recall, and correct me if I'm wrong, the Concordia was badly listed to one side, so those life boats were under water before they could be deployed.  Which thank goodness isn't the case here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jagsfan

jagsfan

Posted
Posted

I hope people keep posting updates all night. 

My family has a long  history with the sea and ships and my grandmother always cried during bad storms because she worried about the sailors on ships. 

I hope we find out that Sky has made it safely to Molde and was able to tie up safely to the dock.

and I really hope the  passengers and crew are able to let their families know they are safe and well. 

If prayers will help, they’ve got them. 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Elka

Elka

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, just_dont said:

They departed from Tromsø

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 

 

Yes, I know. I was in Tromsø in October 2018. Alesund is near to Bergen and Tromsø is north and past the Arctic Circle. Since they departed from Tromsø and now they are going to Molde, I just gave the direction the ship is now heading.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Chris86

Chris86

Posted
Posted
38 minutes ago, Pushka said:

In the case of the Concordia and now Sky, they were unable to use the lifeboats. So it does beg the question of what they can actually be used for in emergency situations like these two. 

 

In this case the ship isn't sinking so why would you take the risk of injuring further pax. Concordia is a different situation it capsized and large numbers of pax and crew onboard. I'm sure if they hit ground and the ship was taking on water they would be in a full scale evacuation. I'm agreeable with the slower air evacuation as a precaution in this scenario. It is rather questionable how the engines failed on a virtually brand new ship and would be interested to see what is investigated.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Pushka

Pushka

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, Chris86 said:

 

In this case the ship isn't sinking so why would you take the risk of injuring further pax. Concordia is a different situation it capsized and large numbers of pax and crew onboard. I'm sure if they hit ground and the ship was taking on water they would be in a full scale evacuation. I'm agreeable with the slower air evacuation as a precaution in this scenario. It is rather questionable how the engines failed on a virtually brand new ship and would be interested to see what is investigated.

 

Im guessing winching people into helicopters is viewed as less dangerous but in reality it’s incredibly risky. Add in storm and darkness now. An awful decision to have to make. Everyone will need some time to recover from this. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...